MECHANICS OF OFFSHORE PIPELINES IN SEVERAL OPERATING STATES AND ANALYZING SOFTWARE

摘要

Offshore pipelines are indispensable structures during the marine petroleum exploitation. There are manifold operation states having to do with pipelines such as in situ operation, span, trenching, pipelaying, lifting of pipe/riser, etc. The behavior of pipelines in one state differs greatly from the others. In addition, the structure configuration, the sea severity, and the seabed soil conditions are complex. Therefore, strength analysis of offshore pipelines becomes a rather difficult and onerous task. Presently, there is a lot of technological difficulty in the course of analysis, among which are not only theoretical problems such as geometric non-linearity and moveable boundary, but also practical problems. To tackle the problems, analytical methods, numerical methods such as FEM and shooting method are adopted respectively and jointly. Based on the theoretical research, integrated software named 'Offshore Pipelines Strength Analysis' is developed. This software can carry through strength analysis of pipelines in different operating state, being up to the requirement of engineers. The theoretical background and interface of the software are presented.